Lobby seeks funds for KITUI girl without limbs

Friends and well-wishers have organised a fund raiser for the 18-year-old Martha Mbulungo whose arms and a breast were chopped off by her boyfriend, to help her bring up her newborn child.

The meeting scheduled for next Friday has been organised by Kitui-based Girl Child watchdog project, which has been supporting the girl since the October 20, 2014 incident. The girl, who is also fighting for justice in a Kitui court, gave birth five months ago, but her mother is unable to feed the grandchild and raise cash for the case.

“The now disabled girl and her single mother are in a dilemma as the family goes without food most of the time,’’ says Girl Child Watchdog coordinator Christine Vethi.

She says her efforts to assist the girl acquire artificial arms have borne no fruit, prompting the mother to abandon other gainful chores to take care of both the newly-born child and the daughter. She urged friends and charitable organisations to attend the event, adding that the circumstances under which the girl lost her arms was pitiful.

Martha was a Form Two student at Yumbisye Secondary School when she was attacked after being lured out of her home in Kiruiru by a boy she knew who later turned against her chopping off her arms and a breast.

“Now I have two people to attend to, my daughter and her child because she cannot do anything on her own,’’ says her mother Mary Joseph. She says her hopes for the daughter to go back to school after recovery have now been dashed after she gave birth.

“I tried in vain to get artificial arms for the girl and with added misfortune of her becoming a mother, I have lost hope and really need help’’, she says. She was admitted to Kitui County Referral Hospital before being transferred to Nairobi Women’s Hospital by Gender-Based Violence Rescue Centre